Well it may have taken us a ridiculous amount of time, but we're finally at Round 4. 96 people began and now only 12 remain... As you may have guessed from the two previous rounds, this round will also have a theme.

The theme for Round 4 is Mash-Ups.

If you're not familiar with what a mash-up is, it's when somebody takes two or more different songs, and mixes them together to create something unique. There've been several great examples of these used in AMV's, but the two that spring to mind first would be Dueling Videos: Under Ice and Blame It On 2009: A Good, Good Year.

Now aside from just giving you guys a specific type of song to edit with, this round will also have some pretty interesting changes to the rules, so PLEASE READ THEM!

(At the end of Episode 5, I do explain these rule changes with audio and explainer graphics, if that might help)

1. SONG SELECTION

Rather than pick 6 specific mash-ups to give you guys, I've accumulated 18 mash-ups. Before each match, I will randomly select three of them. I will give both editors links to all 3 songs. They will download and listen to them, then RANK them 1-3 based on how much they liked them (1 being lowest, 3 being highest). I will then add the scores together and whichever song has the highest score, will be the one that gets used. In the case of a tie, I will roll a virtual dice to select the winner.

2. SOURCE SELECTION

In previous rounds, you gave me a list of 5 sources, and you ended up with 1 of them. In this round, you will give me 4 list items, each one containing 3 sources.

The idea here is that you want a nice variety of sources that will still mesh well together. Not unlike the core idea behind mash-ups themselves. One thing to keep in mind is that each list item needs to include 3 DIFFERENT series/movies/etc. So you can't just do Cowboy Bebop 1-5, 6-10, 11-15, or whatever.

Because you will have considerably more source to prepare, you will choose sources 48 hours ahead of time rather than 24.

One more thing to keep in mind. You MUST USE AT LEAST TWO OF YOUR THREE sources in your video. Obviously I'd prefer you to try and work in all 3, but two is the minimum.

3. EDITING TIME

From this point on in the tournament, editors will have the choice between editing for either 2 or 3 hours. However, both editors must agree on the duration, otherwise it will default down to 2 hours.

Sooo yeah. I think that pretty much explains it. If anybody has any questions, please feel free to let me know. Considering that we only have 6 matches remaining, I can't imagine this being too complicated to work out. You should all know who your opponents are. Go talk to them, figure out when you wanna do your match, and get back to me!

Sole Survivors:There were three sole survivors in Round 3. They went a combined 2-1, with Kyotachi (Austria) beating Heavyamv, JCD (Germany) falling to Dn@, and Starsy7 (Mexico) winning over Niwa.Round 5 will have three sole survivors, Kyotachi (Austria), Dn@ (France), and Starsy7 (Mexico).

Undefeated/Winless:The only nations to go undefeated in Round 3 were sole survivors: Austria and Mexico. Mexico continues to be unbeaten in the whole tournament.Sweden went winless in three matches after going undefeated in Round 2, losing two matches to USA and one to Mexico.Italy is a perfect 4-0 against USA editors. The only better record between two nations is France's 5-0 over USA editors. Both can improve or break those records: Match 87 for France (Dn@ vs. Radical Yue) and Match 88 for Italy (LukeG vs. Mamo!).

Positioning:There were exactly the same number of wins (6) from the upper bracket slot as from the lower slot, for the second time (Round 1) in the tournament.Kikai Saigono has won all three matches from the lower bracket slot, but will occupy the upper slot for Round 4. Her opponent, AngelDragoon, is doing the exact reverse (Round 1-3 in Upper, Round 4 Lower).Kristyrat has won all three matches from the lower slot, and can continue all the way to the finals in the lower slot.Silk_SK is the only competitor that can make it to the finals alternating which slot they're in every round.

Nation Numbers:With Unlimited Rice's loss in Match 83, no nation can sweep the finals slots. At least two nations will be represented.Germany and Sweden have had all of their editors eliminated.Six nations still have representatives in the competition, from a starting eighteen.The USA posted its first winning round, going 5-4 after 23-26 in Round 1 and 9-14 in Round 2.

National Opponents:Kyotachi has been the only competitor to defeat a French editor, beating Kain-x-Spirits in Round 2, and Heavyamv in Round 3. He can't meet the only remaining French editor (Dn@) until the finals.If Riccardocasu (Italy) beats Kristyrat, Chiikaboom will have the opportunity to reach the finals having never faced two opponents of the same nationality. She beat Noss (Germany) in Round 1, GloryQuestor (USA) in Round 2, Phantasmagoriat (Canada) in Round 3, and faces Kyotachi (Austria) in Round 4.Silk_SK's match against Starsy7 is his first against a non-USA opponent.

Just occurred to me while watching Ep 5...so, if both editors have to vote on which songs they like/hate and then you total it up and such.... this basically means that the editors MUST edit at the same time, otherwise it's not possible...

I'm glad that you didn't re-use the same rules from last tournament, especially the one that enabled the two competitors from selecting different songs. Sure it made it alot easier for the editors, but it inevitabely brought musical taste into the judging. Both videos being to the same song is a requirement for maximum fairness in judging imo

On that note, all in all, I really want to get out of my system that I was really dissapointed with the juding of Round 3. I would've decided on another winner on over half of the matches I've seen. And no, in many cases it wasn't just that both videos were really good and my personal taste prefered one over the other. And no, my own match not included. I won't say which matches, since I don't want to discourage those who made it this far.

Also, I want to see a final between 3 different Nationalities! Gogogo, remaining non-Americans in Bracket 1 or 2

JCD wrote:Sure it made it alot easier for the editors, but it inevitabely brought musical taste into the judging. Both videos being to the same song is a requirement for maximum fairness in judging imo

You know what would make that even more fair? Both editors use the same source footage too.

OtakuGray wrote:Sometimes anime can branch out to a younger audience and this is one of those times where you wish children would just go die.